The impartial observer theorem of social ethics
Abstract
Following a long-standing philosophical tradition, impartiality is a distinctive and determining feature of moral judgements, especially in matters of distributive justice. This broad ethical tradition was revived in welfare economics by Vickrey, and aboce all, Harsanyi, under the form of the so-called Impartial Observer Theorem. The paper offers an analytical reconstruction of this argument and a philosophical critique of its premisses.(This abstract was borrowed from another version of this item.)
Download Info
To our knowledge, this item is not available for download. To find whether it is available, there are three options:1. Check below under "Related research" whether another version of this item is available online.
2. Check on the provider's web page whether it is in fact available.
3. Perform a search for a similarly titled item that would be available.
Bibliographic Info
Paper provided by THEMA (THéorie Economique, Modélisation et Applications), Université de Cergy-Pontoise in its series THEMA Working Papers with number 99-33.Length:
Date of creation: 1999
Date of revision:
Handle: RePEc:ema:worpap:99-33
Contact details of provider:
Postal: 33, boulevard du port - 95011 Cergy-Pontoise Cedex
Phone: 33 1 34 25 60 63
Fax: 33 1 34 25 62 33
Email:
Web page: http://thema.u-cergy.fr
More information through EDIRC
Related research
Keywords:Other versions of this item:
- Mongin, Philippe, 2001. "The impartial observer theorem of social ethics," Economics and Philosophy, Cambridge University Press, vol. 17(02), pages 147-179, October.
- Philippe Mongin, 2005. "The Impartial Observer Theorem of Social Ethics," Public Economics 0510002, EconWPA.
- Mongin, P., 1999. "The Impartial Observer Theorem of Social Ethics," Papers 99-33, Paris X - Nanterre, U.F.R. de Sc. Ec. Gest. Maths Infor..
- D63 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Equity, Justice, Inequality, and Other Normative Criteria and Measurement
- B21 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - History of Economic Thought since 1925 - - - Microeconomics
- D81 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Criteria for Decision-Making under Risk and Uncertainty
References
References listed on IDEASPlease report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
- P. Mongin & C. d'Aspremont, 1996.
"Utility theory and ethics,"
THEMA Working Papers
96-32, THEMA (THéorie Economique, Modélisation et Applications), Université de Cergy-Pontoise.
- MONGIN, Philippe & d ASPREMONT, Claude, 1996. "Utility theory and ethics," CORE Discussion Papers 1996063, Université catholique de Louvain, Center for Operations Research and Econometrics (CORE).
- Mongin, P & d'Aspremont, C, 1996. "Utility Theory and Ethics," Papers 9632, Paris X - Nanterre, U.F.R. de Sc. Ec. Gest. Maths Infor..
- Harsanyi, John C., 1994.
"Games with Incomplete Information,"
Nobel Prize in Economics documents
1994-1, Nobel Prize Committee.
- Harsanyi, John C, 1995. "Games with Incomplete Information," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 85(3), pages 291-303, June.
- John C. Harsanyi, 1955. "Cardinal Welfare, Individualistic Ethics, and Interpersonal Comparisons of Utility," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 63, pages 309.
Citations
Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.Cited by:
- Thibault Gajdos & Feriel Kandil, 2008.
"The ignorant observer,"
Université Paris1 Panthéon-Sorbonne (Post-Print and Working Papers)
halshs-00177374, HAL.
- Thibault Gajdos & Feriel Kandil, 2008. "The ignorant observer," Social Choice and Welfare, Springer, vol. 31(2), pages 193-232, August.
- Thibault Gajdos & Feriel Kandil, 2006. "The Ignorant Observer," Université Paris1 Panthéon-Sorbonne (Post-Print and Working Papers) halshs-00115722, HAL.
- Thibault Gajdos & Feriel Kandil, 2005. "The ignorant observer," Cahiers de la Maison des Sciences Economiques v06041, Université Panthéon-Sorbonne (Paris 1), revised Mar 2006.
- Yoram Amiel & Frank Cowell & Wulf Gaertner, 2009.
"To be or not to be involved: a questionnaire-experimental view on Harsanyi’s utilitarian ethics,"
Social Choice and Welfare,
Springer, vol. 32(2), pages 299-316, February.
- Yoram Amiel & Frank A Cowell & Wulf Gaertner, 2006. "To Be or not To Be Involved:A Questionnaire-Experimental View on Harsanyi’sUtilitarian Ethics," STICERD - Distributional Analysis Research Programme Papers 85, Suntory and Toyota International Centres for Economics and Related Disciplines, LSE.
- Simon Grant & Atsushi Kajii & Ben Polak & Zvi Safra, 2006.
"Generalized Utilitarianism and Harsanyi's Partial Observer Theorem,"
Levine's Bibliography
321307000000000419, UCLA Department of Economics.
- Simon Grant & Atsushi Kajii & Ben Polak & Zvi Safra, 2010. "Generalized Utilitarianism and Harsanyi's Impartial Observer Theorem," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 78(6), pages 1939-1971, November.
- Simon Grant & Atsushi Kajii & Ben Polak & Zvi Safra, 2006. "Generalized Utilitarianism and Harsanyi’s Partial Observer Theorem," Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers 1578, Cowles Foundation for Research in Economics, Yale University.
- Valérie Clément & Alain Marciano, 2011. "Welfarism, Libertarian Paternalism and Political Economy: Three Perspectives on Economic Expertise," Working Papers 11-23, LAMETA, Universtiy of Montpellier, revised Nov 2011.
- Bosmans, Kristof & Schokkaert, Erik, 2004. "Social welfare, the veil of ignorance and purely individual risk: An emperical examination," Open Access publications from Maastricht University urn:nbn:nl:ui:27-15455, Maastricht University.
- Tim Krieger & Stefan Traub, 2008. "Back to Bismarck? Shifting Preferences for Intragenerational Redistribution in OECD Pension Systems," Working Papers 13, University of Paderborn, CIE Center for International Economics.
- Juan Moreno-Ternero & John E. Roemer, 2004. "Impartiality and Priority. Part 1: The Veil of Ignorance," Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers 1477A, Cowles Foundation for Research in Economics, Yale University, revised May 2005.
Lists
This item is not listed on Wikipedia, on a reading list or among the top items on IDEAS.Statistics
Access and download statisticsCorrections
When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ema:worpap:99-33For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: (Marion Oury).
If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.
If references are entirely missing, you can add them using this form.
If the full references list an item that is present in RePEc, but the system did not link to it, you can help with this form.
If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.
Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

